Araminta had a great time opening her Christmas stocking in the morning. Then we had breakfast (Daddy made pancakes) and we opened presents when Nana and Poppy arrived at about 10am.

Araminta was our present delivery girl.

Here she is opening her present from Grandma in Western Australia.

Araminta helped Mummy wrap up Daddy’s presents, so she was very excited to see him unwrap his gift.

Araminta got playdough for Christmas and a rolling pin and some cutting shapes.

At the end of a busy day we sat on the couch and read some stories.

Here she is all ready to go.

Note the blanket and the bag.

On Wednesday Ruth took Araminta to have her picture taken with Father Christmas. She wasn’t really sure about the whole process, and needed to come off his lap at one stage for a cuddle with Mummy. But after the photographer brought out his cat toy to wave in the air (she talked about the toy all afternoon), we did manage to coax out a smile.

Even though it was a bit scary for her she has been talking about “Father Kismas” all week.

We have the tree set up and Araminta helped Ruth wrap the presents for Daddy. She is quite happy to have Daddy’s presents under the tree, but it was too much for her to cope with to see presents that she didn’t know the contents of under the tree and she asked me to put them away.

This year we have a fireplace and so the stockings are hanging from the mantle. Araminta looked intently at the three stockings and then wandered off to her room. She came back with a little drawstring bag and hung it on the fire guard. She wanted the cat to have a stocking as well.

It didn’t take her long to figure out something else to do with it–why not cover the snoozing cat in fabric?

He was surprising tolerant–she managed 4 or 5 layers before he’d finally had enough:

Who could resist that grin?

After a shower and breakfast, we opened some presents.

A card from Grandma in Perth.

Some stickers (that we had to try out straight away).

She liked the purple teddy from Grandma, it went to bed with her that night. The rubbish bin is there at Araminta’s insistence. She got most distressed that there was nowhere to put the wrapping paper.

Araminta has been showing a strong interest in learning her letters, and she can recognize a fair few now, so Mummy and Daddy bought her some flashcards.

They were a hit.

Also a big hit was the tractor puzzle book. Check out the expression on her face.

This is one of my favourite photos of the day – seeing her new baby for the first time.

Grandma sent Mummy some money and we bought Araminta a stroller for her new baby.

Nana and Poppy came for lunch. They bought Araminta a lovely book and some beautiful new clothes.

We had mushroom raviolli for lunch with pesto sauce and broccoli and carrots, with crusty bread. Araminta had two servings. After lunch there was cake that Mummy made.

Singing “Happy Birthday”

Blowing out the candle.

Finally, a new jumper that Mummy knitted.

It was a wonderful birthday.

Araminta loved the boardwalk at this nature reserve.

Here she is contemplating the flowers. It’s obviously a serious business.

She loved the daisies -

and smelling them.

There were also lilies.

Which also got smelt.

Just after I took this picture Araminta got upset by the soft marshy ground and we had to return to the car where the ground was firmer.

Her speech is coming a long in leaps and bounds. Her latest phrase in response to a question is: “Yes I do”.

She can also count to three fairly consistently, though she starts muddling up the numbers past three so we have “fun, twoooo, three, eight” but the one to three is there.

She hasn’t stopped talking about Grandma and Grandpa and Cayliss and Esther since we got back. When we showed Araminta the photos from the trip she said: “Strayla” so she knows where she has been.

We miss you guys.

Here she is on the flight from Cape Town to Johannesberg.

Sleeping on the flight to Perth. The plane was really empty and we had 4 seats to ourselves. I only got one picture of her like this, because the flash caused her to stir, and I didn’t want to risk waking her up.

In Perth we had a great time. Araminta visited the wildlife park where Ruth’s brother works, and she got to feed kangaroos and pat koalas.

From Perth we stopped briefly in Brisbane and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa’s place in Grafton. Araminta was very excited to see wild kangaroos and wallabies and she loved helping Grandma feed one each morning.

She also loved being pulled around the yard by Daddy and Grandpa in the billycart.

She fed the chooks

and picked mandarins.

She loved mandarins so much that in the end we had to put a limit on how many she could eat a day.

We then left Grafton and returned to Brisbane where we had a lovely time visiting her cousins and uncles and aunties. All of the pictures from Brisbane have cousins in them and I’m not sure how the parents would feel about their kids plastered on the internet, so no pictures from then.

On the plane ride home Araminta made great use of the free eyemask

and helped Mummy watch the luggage in Jo’berg airport.

We were very tired when we got home, and we miss all our friends and family terribly.

And here she is carrying her baby in a sling.

She had a hair cut last week and we bought her some hairclips as well. She insisted that Jeff put all of them in her hair.

See her pants? They are size 6-12 months, and we still need to roll them up. She’s a petite little thing. Daddy bought the spotty pants.

Recently Ruth took delivery of 200 stuffed bears from the Netherlands which she delivered with a friend to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, and to a local hospice/orphanage.

Araminta loved the bears, and had a bit of a hard time understanding that they weren’t for her.  Sonnja the maker of the bears very kindly gave one to her.

She loves it.

We counted up all the words Araminta can say. It’s about 59, and includes telephone, buffalo, cracker, wool and quilt.

We are really looking forward to being home in Australia soon. Especially since our water supply broke on Saturday and they are predicting that it will take a week to fix. I’m getting very tired of flushing the toilet with a bucket and having sponge baths…

She looks like a real little girl when she lets us put a clip in her hair (and keeps it in for more than 5 minutes).

In the cot are just some of the toys that she insists go to bed with her each night. There is a core 5 and then one or two favourites from the day…

We went out for lunch in a near-by town. Araminta looked very lady-like and was exceptionally well behaved, given that we had to wait over an hour for our food and she was hungry.

Araminta loves feeding herself, and she loves yoghurt. Here’s a combination of the two:

She’s getting quite good at managing the spoon.